I tried a quartet from Thoroughbred Music
a few months ago and they were defective!
At moderately loud volumes, they "crackled"
as if I had a bad cord. I sent them back
in exchange for replacements, but the
replacements never came, so I got my money
back and bought a set of Ruby Tubes, Sovtek
5881s. At low volumes, the Svetlanas
sounded very good. I'm hoping they get their
act together so I can try a working set some
day.

I used them this weekend in a 4x10 HR Deville in place of the usual 5881s. To me the Svetlana responded with a more lively mid range and sounded best at about 34mA current draw. The 5881s sound flatter in this amp.

Based on my limited experience with the Svetlana
6L6s, I agree 100% with what you said. The 5881s
definitely sound somewhat flat to me too. They
just don't have the "harmonic richness and
complexity" in the midrange that the Svetlanas
exhibit. However, when driven into saturation,
the 5881s do start to sound pretty good. That's
how I use them, at least for my overdriven
rythym and lead sounds. For clean rythym,
I run them very close to clipping. By the way,
WHERE DID YOU BUY YOUR SET OF SVETLANA 6L6GCs?

I ordered the Svetlana 6L6s through MCM. Their tubes are pretty reasonably priced, but they are sent matched from the company (Sovtek, Svetlana)and I have found mismatching according to bias current draw.